VELOCITEACH – Manage This – Episode 107

As businesses and project managers start to strategize about

the post-crisis world, Mike Goss explains what makes business recovery a

project. How can we respond to this crisis from a business standpoint, and how

that can be a project?

Table of Contents

01:58 … Meet Mike 03:08 … Everything in Life is a Project 03:49 … Responding to Crisis as a Project 05:00 … Redefine your Business: The Why and the Who 09:24 … Business Recovery as a Project 11:26 … Personal Experience with Business Recovery 13:33 … What Parts of a Business will Benefit? 16:05 … Building a WBS 18:45 … Facing Risks in Business Recovery 20:50 … Staying on Course 22:15 … A Project Plan for all Scenarios 23:49 … Overcoming Communication Challenges in Business Recovery 25:37 … A Plan for Businesses of all Sizes 26:06 … Strategizing in a Post Crisis World 27:23 … Advice for Resilience during Business Recovery 32:37 … Mike’s Course on Business Recovery 34:12 … Closing

MIKE GOSS: If we had a scale of one to 10, yesterday you

were at an eight.  Then COVID-19 show

up.  Now you’re at a one.  Your objective is not to get back to

eight.  Your object is to get back to 10,

where you’ve never been before.  On your

way, you’re going to build in the tools and the processes that make sure you

never hit one again, no matter what happens. 

That’s a project.

WENDY GROUNDS:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  This is our opportunity to meet with you and talk about issues that project managers are facing today.  I am Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio is Bill Yates. So today we’re talking in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, businesses are starting to think about the post-crisis situation.  For some organizations it’s really been near-term survival is what’s on the agenda.

BILL YATES:  Right.  I agree, Wendy.  There are so many companies that are just

fighting to stay in business right now. 

I’m a part of a CEO roundtable, and just seeing the impact that this is

having on people locally and globally is huge, I think.  I just saw some statistics today.  Now, just to let listeners know, this is May the

4th.  And so far 30 million people in the

United States have filed for unemployment, just since the COVID-19 got really

serious in March, up until today.  We’re

here in the Atlanta, Georgia area.  So

just for our state of Georgia, one in four workers have filed for unemployment.

WENDY GROUNDS: 

Unbelievable.

BILL YATES:  So it’s

huge.  And obviously our federal

government is taking great steps to help fight through the economic impact of

this as we all figure out what does the new normal look like.    So just thinking about what is business

going to look like when we can get going again. 

So I think it’s helpful for us to have this conversation, and we’re

fortunate to have Mike Goss here to talk through some of this with us.

Meet Mike

WENDY GROUNDS:  He was

telling us that his career has taken more twists and turns than most. 

BILL YATES:  Yeah.  So he started out as a stereo equipment salesman.

WENDY GROUNDS:  And a

computer store owner.

BILL YATES:  An

elevator salesman.

WENDY GROUNDS:  And

then he became a software developer.

BILL YATES:  Senior VP

at a bank.

WENDY GROUNDS:  And

the author of “Breaking

Through Walls,” a business novel about overcoming life’s obstacles.

BILL YATES:  And then

a college instructor.

WENDY GROUNDS:  And

then a radio personality.

BILL YATES:  And of

course he fit a military career in there, as well.  He’s a veteran in the U.S. Air Force, serving

in Thailand during the Vietnam War.

WENDY GROUNDS:  He has

been on a podcast before with us, and he tells us more about that in his

previous episode.  Since 2014, Mike has

also taught PMP exam prep boot camps in Oregon, Washington, and South Carolina.

BILL YATES:  Quite a

diverse, I’d say, yeah, he is definitely shaking the tree.  He’s done quite a diverse...

WENDY GROUNDS:  He’s

been a very busy man.

BILL YATES:  Yup.  I look forward to talking with Mike about the

situation that we’re in now, and what we can take from project management and

apply to this crisis.

WENDY GROUNDS:  Mike,

welcome to Manage This.  Thank you for

being our guest today.

MIKE GOSS:  It’s my

pleasure.  I’ve been looking forward

to this.

Everything in Life is

a Project

WENDY GROUNDS:  We want to start by just kind of setting the stage for what you’ve been talking about.  So why do you say everything in life is a project?

MIKE GOSS:  Wendy, everything in life that’s worth doing has an objective.  Too many times we don’t get around to stating that objective, but in fact, everything we do that’s worthwhile is a project.  We can choose to apply project management principles, or we can choose to wing it.  And so it occurred to me that it makes more sense and saves a lot of time if we make some kind of a plan.  It doesn’t have to be complex, but it has to exist.

Responding to Crisis

as a Project

BILL YATES:  Mike,

when you look at that approach, and you think about where we are today with the

COVID-19 crisis, how do you put those two together?  Because COVID-19 and this crisis that we’re

in can be overwhelming.  So everything in

life is a project.  Now you’re looking at

it and saying, okay, but how we respond to this crisis from a business

standpoint, that can be a project, as well. 

What kind of led you to that decision?

MIKE GOSS:  Bill, it occurs to me that, if you are trying to dig your business out, and your business is probably closed because of COVID-19, how are you going to dig yourself out?  I see a great opportunity to take where we used to be, make it better, so that where we’re going is better than what used to be. And so if we’re careful as we put it together, the next time a surprise like COVID-19 shows up, and it will someday, we’ll be better prepared for that.  When we apply the principles of project management, we can make that happen.  If we wing it, then it will suffer the same way or worse, just like we are now.

Redefine your

Business: The Why and the Who

BILL YATES:  So one of

your statements was this is a time to redefine your business, maybe take a

fresh look at it.  What’s your advice on

reevaluating business?  How far do we go

with this?

MIKE GOSS:  There’s two places that we start, and you can dig as deep as you want in both of the places.  The first one is to think back why did I get into this business in the first place?  Something drew me to it, I had a software business, I once had a computer store.  Why did I get into those?  And if I can answer that, then I start seeing visions of what could be because I was pumped when I created the business in the first place. Now my business took a nosedive, I’ll say it wasn’t my fault, but I also have to say maybe I wasn’t as prepared as I could have been.  So it’s now the time to make a new vision for my business to make it something even better than it was before, and that’s where I’ll start, that’s the first part.

But the second part has to do with my customers, every person who breathes is not my customer.  I’m going to have to figure out better than I ever have before who is my target customer, and what do they care about?  And once I know that, my objective is I want them to buy stuff from me.  That’s my revenue.  I’ll generate  profits from those sales.  But if I don’t know what my customers are looking for, and I open the door and do exactly what I did before, I’ve already set myself up for big trouble.

BILL YATES:  So Mike, a lot of this reminds me of thinking to projects, thinking about a project charter. And I think you can  make the equivalent statement of like a company charter, a mission statement, so with that charter we should be explaining the why.  Why are we doing this project?  What difference is it going to make?  Is it a particular product?  Is it a service? Or is it a result?  Why?  And then who’s going to benefit from it?  Who’s going to pay for it?  Certainly the sponsor.  But then who’s the end customer?  The why and the who are so closely connected, it’s as if you’re describing a project charter, perhaps at a business level. So maybe we need to be taking a fresh look at our business and answering that question of why and the who.

MIKE GOSS:  We do, Bill, because, if we don’t, when something else happens, we’re not going to be prepared. We’re going to say, oh, I’m so shocked that that happened, yet we had the chance to prepare for it, and we chose not to take it.  So what you were saying is the why and the what.  Why does this business exist?  What is it going to build in products or services?  And who is it going to sell those services to?  And how well does it meet the needs of those people who are going to come back to our business?  If we haven’t looked at them recently, it’s time, and so this is such a huge opportunity to do that.

BILL YATES:  So how do you step back and take that fresh look?  So I think for some who are listening, they’re thinking, man, I’m working more hours than I’ve ever worked.  This is like when I first launched my business, or launched a project.  I’m working more hours than I thought I could possibly work, trying to keep things afloat, and now Mike’s challenging me to be very strategic, to look at the why, look at what it is we’re producing, and who we’re producing it for. So what’s your word of inspiration to those folks?

MIKE GOSS:  Start out

with your glass being half full and rising, Bill.  Start there.

BILL YATES:  Okay.

MIKE GOSS:  So right now it’s too easy to say, oh, poor me, doom and gloom, the world is conspiring against me.  There’s no time for that.  It’s now time to do the same thing you did when you first started your business:  create a grand vision of what could be.  Then invite all the kids on your team to go along on a quest to achieve that grand vision,